The present invention relates to an automatic prepreg laminating method and an apparatus for carrying out the same for manufacturing a composite panel of a CFRP or the like to be used as panels for forming fuselages and wings of aircraft, bodies and fairings of rockets and such.
Composite panels of CFRPs have become used prevalently, instead of metal panels, on outer surfaces of various parts including fuselages and wings of aircraft to reduce the weight of aircraft. An automatic prepreg-laminating machine, generally called ATL, was developed and has been used for manufacturing a composite panel. This known automatic prepreg laminating machine laminates prepregs directly on an upper molding surface, serving as a contour-molding surface, of a laminate molding mold.
Although this known automatic prepreg laminating machine has a function to perform numerical control in laminating unidirectional prepregs having a width of 3 in. or 6 in., the automatic prepreg laminating machine takes much time to form laminates having a large area and those having a big thickness and is unable to form laminates efficiently because the automatic prepreg laminating machine is able to laminate only narrow prepregs.
A recently developed fiber placement machine, generally called FPM, is capable of laminating prepregs on a laminating mold having a complicated contour-molding surface, and is characterized in a capability of simultaneously laminating tens of narrow prepregs of a width in the range of 3 to 10 mm. However, since the prepregs are very narrow, as mentioned above, the fiver placement machine takes more time for forming a laminate of a unit area than the automatic prepreg laminating machine and operates at very low efficiency.
Since the laminating mold is bound by automatic prepreg lamination when prepregs are laminated directly on the laminating mold, other work cannot be performed on the laminating mold during automatic prepreg lamination. Thus, those known machines are unsuitable for manufacturing panels at a high production rate.
Each of those know machines is provided with a laminating head having a ten-axis control function and a prepreg cutting function to laminate prepregs on the laminating mold having a three-dimensional contour molding surface. The laminating head is very heavy and the machine is inevitably large.
The prepreg cutting function is able to cut prepregs only linearly and is unable to cut prepregs in delicate shapes.
The control of the laminating head requires a very high arithmetic ability to laminate prepregs on a laminating mold having a complicated contour-molding surface and takes much time. Consequently, lamination of prepregs to form a laminate takes much time and prepregs cannot efficiently be laminated.